Optical spectroscopic investigation on the temperature-dependent electronic structure evolution of the Jeff,1/2 Mott insulator Sr2IrO4

We investigated the temperature-dependent evolution of the electronic structure of the Jeff,1/2 Mott insulator Sr2IrO4 using optical spectroscopy. The optical conductivity spectra $sigma(omega)$ of this compound has recently been found to exhibit two d-d transitions associated with the transition between the Jeff,1/2 and Jeff,3/2 bands due to the cooperation of the electron correlation and spin-orbit coupling. As the temperature increases, the two peaks show significant changes resulting in a decrease in the Mott gap. The experimental observations are compared with the results of first-principles calculation in consideration of increasing bandwidth. We discuss the effect of the temperature change on the electronic structure of Sr2IrO4 in terms of local lattice distortion, excitonic effect, electron-phonon coupling, and magnetic ordering.

Dual Character of Magnetism in Ferropnictides: Insights from Optical Measurements

We investigate the electronic structure of EuFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$ using optical spectroscopy and first-principles calculations. At low temperature we observe the evolution of textit{two} gap-like features, one having a BCS mean-field behavior and another with strongly non-BCS behavior. Using band structure calculations, we identify the former with a spin-Peierls-like partial gap in $d_{yz}$ bands, and the latter with the transition across the large exchange gap in $d_{xz}/d_{xy}$ bands. Our results demonstrate that the antiferromagnetism in the ferropnictides is neither fully local nor fully itinerant, but contains elements of both.

Bandwidth-Controlled Insulator-Metal Transition and Correlated Metallic State in 5$d$ Transition Metal Oxides Sr$_{n+1}$Ir$_{n}$O$_{3n+1}$ ($n$=1, 2, and $infty$)

We investigated the electronic structures of the 5$d$ Ruddlesden-Popper series Sr$_{n+1}$Ir$_{n}$O$_{3n+1}$ ($n$=1, 2, and $infty$) using optical spectroscopy and first-principles calculations. As 5$d$ orbitals are spatially more extended than 3$d$ or 4$d$ orbitals, it has been widely accepted that correlation effects are minimal in 5$d$ compounds. However, we observed a bandwidth-controlled transition from a Mott insulator to a metal as we increased $n$. In addition, the artificially synthesized perovskite SrIrO$_{3}$ showed a very large mass enhancement of about 6, indicating that it was in a correlated metallic state.

Orbital-Driven Electronic Structure Changes and the Resulting Optical Anisotropy of the Quasi-Two-Dimensional Spin Gap Compound La4Ru2O10

We investigated the electronic response of the quasi-two-dimensional spin gap compound La4Ru2O10 using optical spectroscopy. We observed drastic changes in the optical spectra as the temperature decreased, resulting in anisotropy in the electronic structure of the spin-singlet ground state. Using the orbital-dependent hopping analysis, we found that orbital ordering plays a crucial role in forming the spin gap state in the non-one-dimensional material.